Sonia Gandhi and her son, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, are all set to campaign at Medchal constituency on November 23, which will be the only venue where the UPA chairperson will be present at for the upcoming Assembly elections. But the developments in the last week could cause some trouble for the Congress.
On Monday, in his plea to the apex court alleging intervention in the functioning of the Central Bureau of Investigation, CBI DIG MK Sinha named former Congress MLA Laxma Reddy, who is the party's candidate from the constituency, in connection to a bribe taken by Hyderabad-based businessman Sana Satish Babu. Sinha has also named National Security Advisor, MoS for Coal and Mines Haribhai Chaudhary, Union Law Secretary Suresh Chandra, officials of PMO as well as Central Vigilance Commissioner KV Chaudhary.
Para 16.4 of his affidavit stated: "Discreet enquiries were conducted and a source informed that there are calls intercepted by another central agency in the first fortnight of June, wherein there is talk between Shri K Laxma Reddy, MLA, Medchal, Hyderabad, and Shri Sana on money being sent to the tune of one or two crores."
Sources inside the Telangana unit of the Congress party said that once Reddy's name figured in the affidavit, discussions were held to try and shift the venue elsewhere as a campaign by the party's top brass could make for "bad optics". But a host of reasons stopped the party leaders from doing so.
Once the decision to host Sonia Gandhi was finalised in the first week of November, Hyderabad, which was the first preference was ruled out due to space and logistical constraints. While Hyderabad city could pose a security risk, Old Hyderabad was not preferred by party leaders for being a MIM stronghold.
It was then decided to hold a rally somewhere at the outskirts of Hyderabad. But almost all of the 24 constituencies in and around Hyderabad had to be opted out of due to one reason or the other leaving Medchal. Khairatabad and Jubilee Nagar, which lie in the heart of Hyderabad city, posed the problem of space constraints, said a party leader.
In addition to that, Maheshwaram and LB Nagar were overlooked as Rahul Gandhi had held campaign meetings in these areas. Rajendra Nagar, Kukatpally and Malkajgiri, Ibrahimpatnam, Patancheru, Sanath Nagar and Uppal, which were initially identified went to the Mahakutami, and some of these areas have no dearth of dissenting candidates.
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